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Message: <blockquote data-quote="NaturalZero" data-source="post: 7773431" data-attributes="member: 55705">As doctorbadwolf says, from a world-building perspective there's nothing saying that creating a tiny explosion in a tube takes more resources than a wand that shoots an entire Firebolt (or whatever), especially if we're making a legitimately magical Eberron thing instead of a real-world mechanism. From this perspective, now I'm seeing how the magical "thunder cannon" could literally just be a single piece without moving parts and a tiny, less-powerful-than-a-cantrip spell in the barrel that propels metal balls. You could conceptually make it for less than the cost of a wand with a simpler design than even the most primitive real-world firearm.Why would they make something that does bludgeoning damage in a war with magic? Because the thunder cannon does a bunch of other things, via the artificer. A wand does exactly one thing, but Unearthed Arcana gave us an experimental TC that does thunder damage, lightning damage, AOEs, et al. This is without getting into the idea that bullets could be enchanted with special properties, including rare ones with big effects. The wand does magic missle 6 times a day and that's it, but the magical gun is a platform to throw out Tanglefoot bullets, siege-destroying acid rounds, undead-killing blessed rounds, dispel magic rounds, or even expensive one-shot Fireball rounds. I'm thinking of how the Eberron-gun could be a thing that basically shoots bullets that are essentially one-charge spell expendable items, and that seems to not only fit the theme of the world perfectly but open up plenty of design space and options. It's steeped in magic flavor and far more versatile than a regular ol' wand.One of the cool pieces of 4e that 5e threw out was the concept of implements with different properties and benefits from specialization. I'd be hyped for an in-depth rule module that gave different implements various properties and presented a slew of intrinsically magical implements that grant effects to spells cast. I feel like i'd be more excited for wandslingers completely eclipsing the gunsmith artificer if there were interesting options to make wandslingers different from every other mage in every DnD setting that uses cantrips at-will. What would a specialized wandslinger artificer bring to the table that a every warlock with a gun-shaped wand from any other world doesn't?</blockquote>

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